The university presidential search committee last year included two students, but department faculty committees do not offer students as much participation in the faculty hiring process. However, Student Government is pushing for more student involvement, said Ronnie Deedrick, student vice president for academic affairs.

“The students are those that are most affected (by faculty hiring),” he said. “Why not have a student in there seeing these applications that come in?”

The hiring process normally takes a year and includes approval of a candidate from Blair Lord, vice president for academic affairs. Departments decide the area of expertise for the open position and many positions are advertised nationally, said Anita Shelton, history department chair.

Shelton said after advertising, representatives interview candidates at a national conference and the candidate comes to campus for an interview.

She said student involvement begins when the candidate arrives on campus, as students in the history department are given the opportunity to evaluate them. However, Shelton said, students are not qualified to be involved in the other processes, such as evaluating applications.

The history department is now searching to fill two faculty positions for next fall semester, Shelton said.

“The involvement of students has been limited,” said Robert Bates, health studies department chair. “They would not be involved in … the screening of candidates.”

Faculty candidates applying for a department position make a presentation in a classroom setting when visiting the university, Bates said.

“It’s an opportunity for us to see an interaction of the candidates with students,” he said.

He said he would be open to more student involvement as long as the confidentiality policy was followed in the hiring process, because students can offer a different perspective.

“Someone who is in a major in a department … may have some insights from a different perspective than a faculty members,” Bates said.

Allen Davis, math department chair, said there are other reasons besides qualification for the lack of student involvement.

“There’s real concerns with privacy and confidentiality. The students are not employees at Eastern,” he said. “To my knowledge students have never been on search committees and never been allowed to look at documentation.”

Davis said he would agree with more student involvement in candidate selection, but candidates for the math department must meet some students before being hired.

“We always have the candidate give a presentation,” he said. “They’ll explain their research and it may be totally outside any knowledge a student would have the background to understand.”

The university policy on faculty hiring procedure does not limit students from serving on search committees, but states the civil rights director or designee can serve as an ex-officio member on the committee.

The policy states that confidential information can be shared only with committee members and others specifically mentioned who are associated with the department searching for new faculty.

“Only persons serving on the screening committee…shall have access to applicants’ letters of reference or transcripts. All screening committee deliberations are confidential and may only be shared with those directly involved in the employment decision,” the policy states.

Deedrick said the college student deans are investigating options with furthering student involvement in hiring procedures, but nothing has been proposed.

He said if students can help search committees select a university president, then they could be involved in selecting faculty, but tradition could account for the lack of current student involvement in the process.

“I don’t know a lot of departments that do allow students to serve on faculty hiring committees with the same voice,” Deedrick said.